moonslav59

100%

One could do this with ever GM that spends this much money in one winter

Indeed. I felt like the quantity over quality was need from ‘20 to ‘22 but not ‘23.

If there was just one WC team, 3 teams would be within 4.5 games of BAL, who is playing poorly, of late. 7 teams would be within 8.5 games from BAL. There are 8 teams within 8 games of their division leader, so it’s kinda not the 3rd WC as much as divisional races.

CLE is 2 GB in the ALC but 5.5 behind the WC. DET is 5.5 GB but out of the WC race. CWS are about the same as DET.

The main thing keeping teams in the AL playoff race is both the 3 WC teams and a first place team in the ALC having a losing record. CLE, DET and CWS are closer to first place than the 4th team behind the e WC race.

I’ve asked for one name countless times. It’s total strawman. Many assume by trying to add context you are praising Sox leadership. IMO, Bloom was given 3 major tasks: 1. Rebuild the farm and establish a continually replenishing farm system. Grade: incomplete, although I did not expect results like Whitlock, Wink and Wong, so quickly. 2. Fix the budget and phase out long term deadweight deals. Grade: incomplete, although the Story signing looks like it could go that way. 3. Put reasonably competitive teams on the field, starting in 2022- not ring teams but decent teams fans should want to watch. Grade D, although the 2021 surprise brings it up to a C, to me. I had thought 2023 would show more improvement than it has, so far, but we are just half way through the season. Looking at all the injuries, almost exclusively in just two areas: P and SS, I think .500 seems reasonable. This is not taking Bloom off the hook. Despite the reset mandate, he has enough resources and finally some help from the farm to expect a little better than .500.

I expected dead last in 2020, maybe 4th in ‘21. The good ‘21 season got me overly excited about what bloom and Cora had done and we’re doing, but if you asked me what our combined record would be back before 2020 and for the next 4 years, I’d probably have said about .500 would be good, as long as the farm, foundation and budget were looking better. If I knew the spending would be like it was, I’d have said under but near .500 would be a plus.

You are right. There are very few really bad teams. The AL only has two teams out of it: OAK and KCR.

I thought the Story signing made sense, even figuring he might miss a year, as I felt they knew all along Bogey was not coming back. Story at SS from 2022-2024 maybe missing a season with elbow surgery. Story at 2B from 2025-2027 as Mayer takes SS. $140M/5 would not have been bad, if Story hit okay and fielded close to GG levels at SS or 2B. All in all, it looks like a bust out of the gate. It was his first big signing, and he missed. Yoshida looks okay, despite him likely being best used as a DH. Devers is looking more questionable, but I still like the move, especially in light of losing Betts and Bogey.

That's how I have seen it since the salary dump before 2020. I had hopes we'd think that time was 2023, but we decided to reset. Had we not gone over in 2022, maybe we might have splurged. I'm not going to say 2024 should be the year, and maybe we wait for Mayer to go large and long. That might be 2025.

To be honest, considering basically no farm help for 5 years, a mandated trade of Betts w Price, massive new spending budget cuts for 3 years (counting 2019) and declining production or a ton of IL time from just about every vet- even some still in prime, how can expectations be higher than what the team gave us in 2019 (84-78?) One could argue coming close would be a surprise. I do think, starting with the Story signing, expectations should have risen, somewhat. With still no contributing farm help until this year, I'm not sure 84-78 should have been the expectation, either. Looking at the results and lower expectations, I don't think grading Bloom would be as harsh as we see here. The 2021 season, to me, was a big plus. 2022 was a let down, but to me, not by as much as '21 was a plus. 2023 is still an incomplete grade. All in all I would not say Bloom has not done a good job on the MLB roster, but he hasn't been horrible, either- within the context I brought up. I'd give a C, maybe. The farm grade is tougher to call, but it looks like a pretty solid B, to me. We've already seen Whitlock, Wink and Wong from Bloom's farm, despite mostly HS draftees. The long term budget looks way better than it did in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, so I have to give a grade higher than C. Of course, Story could be a bust, and Yoshida and Devers could be letdowns, but it looks better than Price, Sale, Porcello and others.

The Nate signing is still pending on the final grade.

Do these guys compare notes or get ideas from each other?

I'd do the exact same deal and add Mata or Wikelman- maybe both.

Imagine if we had signed Eflin ($40M/3) and Swanson ($177M/7). That's $38M/yr. -10 Kluber -10 Kike -7 Duvall -3 Mondesi I think we'd still be under the tax line, but we'd have more longer term debt.

To switch from being a Sox fan to another team? Wow! I'm not hearing that on New England radio talk shows.

There is certainly a lot of luck involved. One area of luck is how teams try to guess what round a player they like might be taken and then take him in the previous round or two. I do think some teams are better staffed to make the right picks more often than others. I don't think the Sox are bad, but it looks like others are more or less, consistently better, especially with pitching. When I look at Bloom's drafts and IFA signings, they look pretty good, on paper. Since most of his picks were HS kids, it's going to take longer than many teams to see results at the ML level. That's not an excuse for Bloom, but it should not be a ding, either, until we find out how good they end up. Sometimes, if prospects are traded, all that matters is how good the other GM thinks the prospects are. For example, the DD prospects traded away mostly underperformed their rankings. The ones he kept like Devers and more far away prospects like Bello, Casas and Duran ended up better than Moncada, Espinoza and Kopech, among others. Our system has worked for us over the past two decades, although we have often had to trade top everyday prospects for pitching. The longest lull I have noticed under JH's era was from Devers call-up in 2017 to Bello's call-up in late 2022. That's 5 years with just Houck, Dalbec and a struggling Duran added to the big club from within. I'm not sure some fans realize the magnitude of that fact. I can't think of any team that has been consistently a winner without any farm infusion in 5 years. That 5 years began in 2018, and the affects are usually not felt for a couple years or more (like starting in 2020.) Just look how much of a boost Bello and Duran have given this team, and to a lesser extent Casas! Imagine our 2021 and 2022 teams with 2-3 guys like them added each year. Low cost- decent production filling key need areas and allowing the resources we had to fill other slots to be more targeted and not scattered about 10-12 slots. I know this particular talk is about the farm, but I want to add that the situation Bloom was handed was also hampered by the fact that hardly any added spending occurred starting a year before he even come into power (2019.) The effects of that were evident in 2019. No replacement of Kimbrell, Kelly and others. Following 2019, the forced trade of Betts and insisting they take Price, too gut punched the roster, and no money was spent to come close to replacing Betts. The budget remained tight until March 2022. 5 years of no farm infusion. 3+ years of relatively lower winter spending. 3+ years of key carryover vets getting injured (Sale, ERod, Nate, Price and others) or declining in production (Sale, Price, Porcello, Beni, JBJ, Bogey, JD and others.) I still scratch my head when I see so many fans having unrealistic expectations for the team. They see the 2018 team and throw away all context that came with it.

Keeping Mayer would lead me to say Yes, but only if Cease agrees to extend.

ERA by Month for selected Sox pitchers: APR>MAY>JUNE 6.57> 2.67> 2.14 Bello N/A> 4.26> 1.74 Paxton 4.50> 6.08> 4.20 Houck 6.19> 1.80> 5.16 Whitlock 3.70> 2,84> 4.71 Crawford 1.40> 3.14> 5.73 Wink 5.11> 6.20> 2.53 Pivetta 6.75> 5.60> 9.45 Kluber 6.75> 2.42> N/A Sale 1.04> 6.43> 3.09 Jansen 2.57> 0.00> 2.61 Martin

Sox Best OPS Team .861 Yoshida DH .849 Duran CF .835 Duvall LF .816 Devers 3B .815 Turner 1B .810 Verdugo RF .746 Refsnyder 2B *stretching it here .702 Reyes SS .691 Wong C

Woo won 10-4 Bleier pitched a scoreless inning. 7 HRS! Dalbec 20th, Rafaela, Reyes (rehabbing), Valdez, Sogard, RHern and Palka POR lost 7-1 They managed just 4 hits (Hickey & Rosier w singles, Kavadas & McDonough w doubles. GRE lost 8-5 3-5 Paulino w 2B 2-3 Jordan w BB 2-5 Bonaci GRE lost game 2 (7-3) Jordan 2-4 SAL lost 4-3 Brannon with a 3 run jack Asigen 0-1 w 2BB .

Go to more away games, too.

You still made a good point. Other organizations seem to get these choices right more often than us, although I think we have drafted pretty well for the last couple decades- just not so much with pitching. Atlanta and a few other teams have done a great job, but I don't think we have done badly. I think the 5 year near drought from Devers to Bello made us antsy and Bloom picking mostly HS players made our patience evaporate. If we see the guys like Bello, Casas, Duran and even Crawford & Wink and realize they took over 4 years to get to this point, we should figure Bloom's farm should not have been expected to give us anything, until next year, at the earliest. Within that context, seeing be brought us Whitlock and Wink before the 4 years, that should be viewed as a plus. The rest is speculative and not gradeable, yet. EValdez, Abreu and Hamilton may improve. The farther away prospects look pretty good, on paper: 1. Mayer 2. Bleis 4. Yorke 5. Drohan 6. Anthony 7. Romero 10. Valdez, 14. Abreu, 19. Hamilton 15, E R-C 16. Jordan 18. Hickey 21. Alcantara, 23. Meidroth, 25. Guerrero, 26. Ravelo, 28. Kavadas, 29. Coffey, 30. Rogers Lots of promising guys at FCL and DSL, too.

Exactly. This whole "Bloom let ____ walk" is getting tiring.